The president of Iowa Telecommunications Association spent Tuesday at the president’s economic forum in Peosta pushing his message about the need for rural broadband access. Dave Duncan says he was able to bring out his concerns during a breakout session.
Duncan says there were several representatives of the FFA in the room that were in their teens and 20’s and he asked them if they would want to stay in rural town if there were no broadband internet access. He says none of them raised their hand and says that’s his point, is that the country needs a “consistent and a reasonable broadband policy that encourages broadband deployment to all rural America.”
Duncan says there were representatives from several states that talked about this and other issues facing rural America, and that helped lend support to his concerns.He says it’s a broader issue “than just a bunch of rural Iowans getting together to talk and hopefully trying to get their message to the president.”
Duncan says it shows that for the country to succeed, all of rural America needs to succeed, as we are all interrelated. Duncan says the U.S.D.A. has helped with broadband deployment to rural areas, while the F.C.C. is promoting rule changes they believe will be detrimental to the effort.
Duncan hopes this forum will help in efforts to get all the federal agencies on the same page with the issue.